Finally, a handheld Sims game worth owning. Sims has tried and tried to make a mark on the portable market but the technology simply has not been there to do it. And now with the PSP and it’s glorious high resolution LCD screen, it’s looking like it’s finally time.

One of the biggest changes for the handheld version of the game is how the developers tailored it more towards the handheld experience and attention span. You wont find any point, click, watch and wait gameplay here. Instead you will directly control your sim with the analog stick like you would in a 3d adventure game. Simply walking up to an object or character and hitting the X button brings up a menu for which you navigate using the Up and Down arrows on the directional pad. Most of the menus are hidden during gameplay in order to maximize the view space, but the occasional icon will come up to warn you of an impending pants wetting or some such disaster. To take the handheld approach a step further, players will now follow their Sim to work to play a variety of mini games. The better you do, the more money you take home. Very cool.

Sims for PSP is a semi-linear experience, similar to Bustin’ Out in that you choose a character and then follow a somewhat pre-determined path through various neighborhoods and houses. I say somewhat because you’re given the option to choose where you go in which order. Design features have been scaled back a bit (no more building walls), but you can upgrade your homes to an extent as well as decorate walls, floors and place furniture.

At only 50% complete, Sims 2 is already easily one of the best looking game on the PSP. Character models are very comparable to their Sims 2 PC counterparts while the system manages to pull off a very playable frame-rate which will surely continue to improve as the game nears completion. Environments look great as well.

So basically what we have here is the ultimate time-waster turned ultimate handheld time-waster, and I couldn’t be more excited to get my hands on it. Expect to see Sims for PSP on shelves in September.